Beware of Fraudsters - iBankNg Warns

You will agree with me that the year 2017 just like many other years have been full of so many new developments and innovations cutting across different sectors of the society.

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The fraudsters in the society have not been left out in these developments. They have devised several means in advancing their wicked acts and the public must be smart enough not to fall victim. As we draw closer to the end of the year, ‘these our friends’ in the fraudulent sector of the economy have become more innovative and aggressive towards making fast cash. Today, they are present in our different social media platform (instagram, facebook, twitter, snapchat, etc) and are using these media to deceive the public and extort them of hard earned monies. Many times I get to wonder why they don’t just channel this brilliance towards something positive other than their negative acts.

A victim has just shared an experience of how she got duped by a popular instagram page (exclusive_fashion_divas) who posts pictures of shoes, handbags, clothes, etc on her instagram page and luring people to buy. Just as expected, they lure the public to make payment first before delivery and as soon as this payment is made, they block your line and will not have any conversation with you again. They change their number on the page after sometime ready to defraud another set of victims. For this victim who has just shared her experience to ibank blog, she said the representative of the page gave her their FCMB account number in which payment was made and after which she has been unable to get across to them. She realized that the both numbers she used in communicating with them before the payment was made has been blocked. Ibank blog has tried to reach them also all to no avail.

In as much as we have taken necessary steps towards the apprehension of this fraudster, we wish to advise the public to stay away from these individuals. Be sure of the existence of any person/business/company before getting involved in any transaction especially when the terms are “payment before delivery”. Don’t get too emotionally attached to the product being advertised so much that you are lured to want to part with your cash even before you see them.

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More so, do not get carried away with the fact that they have much followers on their media platform (instagrm, facebook, twitter and co); most of these followers can be bought and as such, not real. Apart from the likes of Jumia, Konga and co who already have established a name and good will and as such might insist on payment on delivery, please DO NOT AGREE TO PAY BEFORE DELIVERY.

Unfortunately getting the banks to release information of customers who have been flagged as fraudulent requires a lot of process and this is statutory. While ibank still fights in ensuring that many of them are nabbed, we advise that the public take precautionary steps while dealing with issues that require exchange of money.